


Moving Up

by PeroxidePirate



Category: Provost's Dog - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-07
Updated: 2010-07-07
Packaged: 2017-10-10 10:44:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeroxidePirate/pseuds/PeroxidePirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tansy makes a choice. (Written for the 2010 Goldenlake Drabble Tournament, prompt: Walk the Line.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving Up

Tansy tried her best to be quiet, but her sister, Hedy, was waiting up. "Herun Lofts brung you home again, didn't he?"

"He did." Tansy folded her hands together behind her back. With the newest ring on her right hand, the stone cut into her left palm.

"Did he give you another present?"

There was no point in hiding jewelry, after all. Tansy lifted her chin as she held out her hand.

Her sister whistled.

"It's just a token."

Hedy laughed, bitterly. "A bauble like that?"

"It's nothing. To him, I mean."

"It's plenty, to the likes of us." Hedy looked around the sparse apartment. Their parents slept in the bedroom beyond, the little ones on pallets in the kitchen. Tansy and Hedy shared a bed in the corner of the main room. "David Leik stopped coming around quick enough, once Herun started walking with you. Tom Melkor did, too."

"What of it?"

"Do you like Herun better?"

"He's a good man."

"Do you love him?" Hedy insisted.

Tansy studied her hands. "Hedy, please..."

"Are you selling him flowers, then?"

"It's not like that!" Tansy snapped. "He's a nice boy. So what if I happen to pick the nice boy with the richest grandfather? Look around. Tell me you want to keep living like this when there's another choice."

"That ring," Hedy said. "It belongs on your left hand, doesn't it? You switched it when you came home. You're betrothed." She made the word into a sneer.

"Yes. I am."


End file.
